‘Fabulous.’ Multimillion-dollar attraction opens along river in Columbus

Overlooking the banks of the Chattahoochee River, the Chattahoochee Promenade and the Clifford and Bobsie Swift History Trail are now open in the Columbus Historic District.

The Historic Columbus Foundation celebrated the project’s completion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday afternoon. The $5 million project is the largest investment in HCF history, and the ceremony marked 50 years since the foundation initially invested in preserving the city-owned promenade.

The trail runs from Fifth Street to Seventh Street along Front Avenue. Informational plaques dot the path, highlighting important people and events that have shaped Columbus. The trail also includes the city’s Native American history, civil rights history and industrial legacy.

The foundation moved several sculptures and artifacts from Heritage Park, a HCF-owned property at 703 Broadway, giving them a new home at the refurbished promenade. These historic features include gazebos designed by Columbus architect James J.W. Biggers Sr. and a Liberty Bell donated by business leader D. Abbott Turner.

In addition to celebrating the trail’s opening, the ceremony also marked the relocation of five historic homes to Heritage Park. HCF transported these buildings from Juniper, Lumpkin and elsewhere in the region. HCF, in partnership with the W.C. Bradley Co. will renovate the single-family homes.

HCF board president-elect Catherine Trotter, daughter of the foundation’s first executive director Janice Biggers, told the Ledger-Enquirer the ceremony was “a monumental day” for her and the organization. Biggers dedicated the promenade as a gift to the city for the country’s bicentennial 50 years ago, and now, a month before the country’s 250th birthday, the trail returns as a place of leisure and learning for the community.

“This revitalization has renewed the Chattahoochee Promenade as a place of beauty, history and public gathering,” Trotter said during her speech at the ceremony.

The trail is named in honor of Clifford and Bobsie Swift, former HCF board members for four decades, who donated $1 million to the project. Clifford died in 2021.

Bobsie Swift told the L-E it is important to have people in Columbus committed to preserving history so future generations can learn from the past and avoid repeating it. She said she is excited about the stories the “fabulous” trail will teach.

“It will teach people, not only from Columbus but visitors who come, about the good and the bad,” Swift said. “It’s important to know both to understand things.”

HCF executive director Elizabeth Warden initially toured the site with HCF project manager Justin Krieg and Biggers in 2018. Walden said during her speech at the ceremony Biggers was frustrated with the condition of the Chattahoochee Promenade at the time. Eight years later, Walden is grateful to unveil a revitalized trail that will live and adapt with the city.

“The wonderful thing about the trail is that it can change, it can grow and expand, and that was the purpose behind how we designed it because there’s so many stories that couldn’t be captured,” Walden told the L-E. “The ability for the trail to grow and expand is key to its longevity and to its continued relevance for our community.”